I am a little overwhelmed and very appreciative – I’ve been nominated for a number of great blogging awards over the past months. I wanted to do the acceptance posts properly, so I’ve been pitifully slow about it. I apologize. It took me a little time to select appropriate nominees – but now I’m ready!

I accept awards because it makes me happy, but also because the acceptance process does something that’s important, especially for newer bloggers: It shares information about interesting blogs, and helps us get to know one another.

Here are the requirements for accepting each of these awards (except for the No Strings Attached/Gratitude Award):

Thank the blogger who nominated you and share a link to that blog – Done!

Attach the award icon to your site – Done!

Share seven random things about yourself:I’m getting braver about writing; I love being on the water; I’m a terrible procrastinator; I want a new digital SLR camera; I’m a real klutz; I like loading the dishwasher but hate unloading it; I’m married to a twin.

And finally, offer the specified number of “pay it forward”nominations, advising those bloggers that they’ve been nominated and how to accept the award. (I’ve listed the mandated number of nominees for each award below, and to maximize the number of blogs you can visit, haven’t duplicated them.)

This one I’m sending out to some bloggers who maintain great sites of their own, but always take time to visit and comment on other bloggers’ posts. They (among others) have supported and encouraged me regularly. No strings on accepting this one, folks!

I hope, whether or not these bloggers opt to accept their nominations, that you will choose to visit some or all of them, and perhaps connect with a new kindred spirit or two along the way!

I am somewhat embarrassed to say that while I dithered over these, I have received a couple of new nominations. To those kind folks: I haven’t forgotten you; I am working on my acceptance post now. In the meantime, thanks so much for putting up with me and reading all the way to the bottom – Like most acceptance “speeches,” this ran too long! Maybe I should create a Patient Reader Award!!

I was just looking in my spam folder (don’t really know why) and found your nomination of my blog for an award. Thanks heaps! I’ve retrieved the message and will think about my answers to your questions. Perhaps I shouldn’t ignore the spam folder, though I thought I was supposed to.

Thank you so much for the nomination and congrats on yours! I know it takes time to accept nominations and choose blogs to reciprocate, and you’ve set a wonderful example. Hopefully I will follow your lead!

I just now saw the nomination! It’s my first, so I’m very excited! 🙂 What a lovely compliment from someone who has received so much recognition herself. Thank you so much!

I haven’t had a lot of time to post or read lately, but I promise to set aside some time to check out the other bloggers you recommended and find more people to nominate myself. I’m looking forward to some good reading and photo browsing!

Thank you for nominating me for the One Lovely Blog Award! There are a couple of other awards that I’ve been nominated for that I haven’t quite got around to writing up yet (and feel guilty about!), so I think I’ll be doing the same as you and doing them all in one go at some point soon.

I couldn’t believe my eyes today when I read your comment on my blog.
Can you imagine… because of some technical problems I’d just stopped publishing on that account and started this new one (► http://dauws.blogspot.be/ ) the evening before…
I really experienced it as the most beautiful “farewell”-present I could wish for =)

So thanks to nominate me for this ‘Beautiful Blogger’ award I ‘m honored to be among the chosen blogs. My congratulations on the awards to you as well. You really did a tremendous job on this one.

I’ll be happy to take the award with me, thanks, I’m working on it… . And the forwarding address to my new account is already mentioned on each of my old ones. Thanks for the tip.
Hope to meet you again there too 😉

Thanks! And don’t feel guilty for having a real life! As we know, a blog can burn as much of your time as you let it! I need to spend more time on my retirement posts – that’s something I’ve been neglecting! 😉

Thank you for nominating me….I am honored and overwhelmed! I must begin posting recipes again – this is the second award I get for recipes! I will pick the 7 nominees in a few days – takes some effort on who to pick because some of the bloggers around here have already won loads of awards. I wish I had more time to leave comments on other blogs but that might have to wait until I retire (hopefully I’ll have a job until then!).

I’m with you on not having time until I retire to do all I would like to do with my blog, including visiting other blogs and commenting. For now, I sneak it in here and there. now I need to go visit your blog 😉 Happy blogging!!

Congratulations to you for recognition well-deserved. Additional thanks and gratitude for going the extra mile for others. I really appreciate it and will attempt to share your generosity in the future.

Congratulations!! I am so very honored to be nominated by you. Thank you … muchly! You have done an awesome job accepting these awards and listing your nominees. Clearly you put a lot of work into this. So well done!! Again, MUCH appreciated, and Congratulations to you! 🙂

Girlfriend! You put so much work into this post. I am quite honored to be among the blogs chosen for an award. Thank you so very much! And what a wonderful resource of recommendations for visiting new blogs. Thank you!

You’re welcome. I did this a very little bit at a time, adding new blogs to the post each week. I hope you find some of them interesting!
Each award comes with a suggested number of nominees. The idea is to introduce bloggers to one another, although 15 does seem onerous sometimes.
Some people have trouble coming up with the full number. That’s even why a lot of people don’t accept awards, or take so long to do it. I sometimes go to the WordPress Reader and surf topics when I’m doing research for posts, and challenges are a great way to meet other bloggers. It takes time, so I do this gradually, but I love to do it! 😉

Awwww…you are so nice. How could anyone not pop in and visit. I will admit at times it gets hard when you actually want to have a life as well. But you must know that by now…hehehehe. I am thrilled you included me…especially in the ‘Here’s looking at you kid’ one. I am a crazy Bogie fan. Watched him last night while having dinner at a friends house – Casablanca – drooled ALL the way through. Both at Bogie and Ingrid’s clothing.